12 
INTRODUCTION. 
and the knowledge of this fact enables us to understand 
the dialogue in Romeo and Juliet, which would otherwise 
be unintelligible :— 
“ Mercutio. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd ! So ho ! 
Romeo. What hast thou found ? 
Mercutio. No hare, sir.” Act ii. Sc. 4. 
That coursing was in vogue in Shakespeare’s day, and 
practised in the same way as at present, we may infer 
from such expressions as “a good hare-finder” ( Much 
Ado , Act i. Sc. 1), “Holla me like a hare” ( Coriolanus , 
Act i. Sc. 8), and “ I see you stand like greyhounds in the 
slips, straining upon the start ” ( Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 1). 
Rabbits were taken, and no doubt poached, in the 
same way then as now ; for we read of the coney * “ that 
you see dwell where she is kindled” {As You Like It, 
Act iii. Sc. 2) struggling “in the net.” {Henry VI. Part III. 
Act i. Sc. 4.) 
The Brock-f* or Badger {Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 5) ; 
* ‘ ‘ The coney is called the first year ‘ a rabbet, ’ and afterwards ‘ an old coney.' 
He is a beast of the warren, and not a beast of venery.”— The Gentleman s 
Recreation. 1686. 
f Brock is the old name for badger, and we still find the word occurring in 
many names of places, possibly thereby indicating localities where the badger was 
formerly common. Of these may be mentioned, Brockhurst in Shropshire, 
Brockenhurst in Kent, Brockenborough in Wiltshire, Brockford in Suffolk, 
Brockhall in Northampton, Brockhampton in Oxford, Dorset, Gloucester, and 
Herefordshire, Brockham Green in Surrey, Brockholes in Lancashire and York¬ 
shire, Brock-le-bank in Cumberland, Brocklesby in Lincolnshire, Brockley in 
Somersetshire, Brockley in Suffolk, Brockley Hill in Kent, Brockley Hill in 
Hertfordshire, Brockmoor in Staffordshire, Brockworth in Gloucestershire. 
